30 Voltaire phrases that reflect all his wisdom

The biggest problem and the only one that should concern us is to live happily.

Love is the strongest of emotions, because it attacks the head, the heart and the body at the same time.

I do not agree with a word you say, but I will defend until the last moment your right to say it.

To be good only to yourself is to be good for nothing.

Men who seek happiness are like drunkards who cannot find their own home, even though they know they have it.

The first law of nature is tolerance – as we all have a lot of mistakes and weaknesses.

Misunderstood religion is a fever that can end in delirium.

Man rushes into error faster than rivers flow to the sea.

The greatest pleasure anyone can feel is to please his friends.

Happiness is the only thing we can give without possessing.

Whoever reveals the secret of others passes for a traitor; whoever reveals his own secret passes for an imbecile.

There are those who shine in the second row and eclipse themselves in the first.

If man was born free, he must govern himself; if he has tyrants, he must dethrone them.

The pride of the little ones consists in always talking about themselves; that of the great ones, in never talking about themselves.

God has given us the gift of living; it is up to us to live well.

The infinitely small have infinitely great pride.

Lying is a vice when it causes harm; and it is a great virtue when it does good.

There is in the boy a little bit of a man from the cradle, just as there is in a man a little bit of a boy up to the grave.

Work wards off three evils: vice, poverty and boredom.

It is difficult to free fools from the weapons they worship.

Jealousy when it is furious produces more crimes than interest and ambition.

Those who believe that money does everything tend to do anything for money.

Worry is a disease in which each patient must treat himself.

A misplaced word spoils the most beautiful thought.

Whoever takes revenge after victory is unworthy of winning.

The history of the great events of the world is no more than the history of its crimes.

History can only be written well in a free country.

The secret to annoyance is to say everything.

All men have equal rights to liberty, to their prosperity, and to the protection of the laws.

A prolonged argument means that both parties are wrong.